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I love googling free music . . .without having to accept all the toolbars and hiccups you get. (Was looking for a "Pink" song; not a chance!)It`s like hunting . . . but without the blood! I like watching ebay auctions when they get down to the wire . . . digital pianos, caravans, they go for stupid prices often. But you can`t watch your own sales . . .

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"I'm playing all the right notes � but not necessarily in the right order." Eric Morecambe

My piano teacher said the dreaded "M" word today. "Memorize". I made it clear to her when I started with her last year, that I have been horribly unsuccessful at memorizing music. It's almost like I'm missing some component of my memory. It's not simply difficult. I can memorize passages only to be unable to recall them even 20 minutes later. If I can't get the notes to stick in my short term memory, there's no hope of the notes making it to my long term memory!!!

I felt like that too, when I started lessons, having never memorized any music before. I remember the first time my teacher told me to memorize something. At the end of the lesson, he just kind of tossed this out, "Oh, and memorize the first page by next week." I felt like yelling, "What?! That's impossible!" But I did it. All I can say is that, like everything else, it becomes not quite so difficult the more you practice it. I still hardly ever memorize complete pieces, but I'll memorize sections now without even being pushed to do it.

Originally Posted By: Andy Platt

If you are going to buy a ton of music way above your level, make sure it's crazy hard so you can just casually have it propped open on your piano should visitors pop by. "Yeah, I'm toying with La Campanella but it's not quite speaking to me yet ..."

Ha ha! My teacher had me listening to some Liszt pieces to see if there were any that piqued my interest. Nothing struck me until I heard "La Campanella". So I looked up the sheet music. Um... never mind.

I may have the opposite issue. I can memorize rather easily. My problem is trying not to rely so much on memory but actually "read" the music in front of me.

Originally Posted By: MaryBee

Originally Posted By: dynamobt

My piano teacher said the dreaded "M" word today. "Memorize". I made it clear to her when I started with her last year, that I have been horribly unsuccessful at memorizing music. It's almost like I'm missing some component of my memory. It's not simply difficult. I can memorize passages only to be unable to recall them even 20 minutes later. If I can't get the notes to stick in my short term memory, there's no hope of the notes making it to my long term memory!!!

I felt like that too, when I started lessons, having never memorized any music before. I remember the first time my teacher told me to memorize something. At the end of the lesson, he just kind of tossed this out, "Oh, and memorize the first page by next week." I felt like yelling, "What?! That's impossible!" But I did it. All I can say is that, like everything else, it becomes not quite so difficult the more you practice it. I still hardly ever memorize complete pieces, but I'll memorize sections now without even being pushed to do it.

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Adult beginner since January 2013. My only regret is that I didn't learn sooner.

Well amazingly, the memorizing is coming along. I don't know that I feel solid enough in it to do more than play in my lesson because I worry so about my performance anxiety blanking everything out.

Now I'm aware that's it's going to be "interesting" playing from music on the sections I've memorized. I'm going to look likt a nodding fool as I go from looking at the music to looking at my hands!!

Bottom line is that I doubt I will trust myself enough to play the recital memorized. I want performing to be a reasonably enjoyable experience for me. I do this for fun not to create problems for myself.

Still, I'm surprised that I've had some success memorizing. I thought I couldn't do it at all. It's not quite that bad.

dynamobt, I had a similar experience believing a piece was to hard for me to remember, all those notes it was daunting. I think I have mentioned before I don't have a great memory. I learned early in my work career to have aids for memory. They invented those sticky yellow pads just for me, lol.

Anyway, I did memorize my piece and sounds like you are doing well too. I think it's quite common for people doing recitals to have their music in front of them, even if it's just a security thing.

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Learning piano starts by taking all your confidence and then over many years drip feeding it back to you

Just home from my lesson... my brain's tired! More than a few years of formal lessons over my lifetime and none of my teachers every addressed chord theory until now.

I'm fixed up with a fake book, basic chord theory, straightening out sloppy/lazy fingerings (I have small hands and can only reach to 9ths), and am I slow at this!! I have to build the root chord, then work through all the inversions until I figure out the one that puts the melody note on top... diminished, 9ths, augmented... YIKES! Still, I like the sounds I make when I finally figure out the right chords.

Memorization? Well, that's not easy either for me. But with practice, things do get lodged in a corner of my head...I've gone from one memorized piece to four over the last six months, a biggie for me. A page in a week? Uh-uh. How's about a bar or two?

Quote:

Random musical thought of the day: Why do I keep buying music sheets when I positively know that I won't have time to learn them in 10 lives?

Because it's there to aspire to! I scored a major Craigslist coup not long ago; a music teacher's library of mostly classical sheets. A trunkful! (Well, OK, it was a small British car trunkful, but still...) For $10! Awesome stuff, some attainable, like the Clementi sonatinas I'm working on, to well... music desk "decoration" (when there's no white space left on the page). And all of her handwritten notes on the sheets is like having a second teacher!

Reality check. Showed my teacher the Grieg piece I'm planning to submit for the Grieg recital in September. I told her it's supposed to be one of the "easier" pieces and she gave me the most concerned look and said I better start now. At least she didn't completely say I'm nuts. She's concerned that I will have a hard time with the chords and octave jumping etc. guess there's no better time to learn than now.

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Adult beginner since January 2013. My only regret is that I didn't learn sooner.

It's a good thing ElleC to have something difficult as a goal I sure you would agree. Our problem as beginners is to find the piece that is difficult to satisfy our ambition, but not too difficult that it outstrips out technical ability.

I am mulling over a problem of tackling a very hard piece that will take several months of work. Can I do it, probably, should I do it and not do it justice is the question. I'll get back to you on that one.

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Learning piano starts by taking all your confidence and then over many years drip feeding it back to you

Going to an ultrarunning event for the next four days, although as a volunteer for a change. It is the North Face 100 in the Blue Mountains just outside Sydney.

Obviously I am taking the DP and may leave the hotel now and again to perform my duties. As this week was my six month anniversary of taking up piano I thought I would write down what has happened since starting this endeavor and share it with anyone interested.

I hate learning a new piece of music! officially started my lesson today with 3 new ones (grieg, yiruma and burgmuller) It's gonna be a frustrating week of practice for sure. I've been trying the Grieg and Yiruma scores since last week on my own with no real progress. I hope that after receiving feedback from my teacher, that I'll be able to learn it a little bit better (quicker).

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Adult beginner since January 2013. My only regret is that I didn't learn sooner.